hello!
let me start off by saying that illamasqua is my favourite cosmetic company out there, and has been since it begun - i was in london two years ago around when it started and had the pleasure of attending a masterclass with alex box and the counter staff at selfridges. i use brink almost every time i do my face, and loiter around the robina booth every time i go to myer, even though i've swatched, stared at and salivated over every product on display at least thrice.
i've been using foundation samples for months. i've been fiending, if you will, for a good one. one with medium coverage, buildable, neither matte nor overly shiny, and water- or silicon-based. skin base ticks all the boxes. i got it on the day it came out, after finding my shade with the lovely man at the robina booth, and i've been wearing it since.
i adjusted these in iphoto to try to show exactly what kind of coverage it provides. here are my impressions so far.
when i got to get my shade match, the artist applied it with a foundation brush and buffed that over with the stippling brush. in the past, whenever i've had my face done with a brush, it ends up looking cakey after five minutes. i don't know if the difference was from the foundation or illamasqua's stippling brush, but it was fantastic. it didn't settle in to any lines or blemishes, and didn't look like a mask. this is the first time that has happened when i've had my face done. it lasted until right before bed, only needed powder after about 8-10 hours of wear, and didn't give me that choked feeling that some foundations do. this was also without a primer.
the days following on have been a lot of the same - i use a face of australia primer and apply with my fingers. quite light coverage. you only need an amount the size of a pea for some terrific colour correction. one thing to mention also is that this foundation sets quite quickly, and it's not the best to cover texture. if you're okay with that, it's a dream. it has no spf (the reason being that spf can throw back light from a camera's flash, causing your face to appear lighter in a photo) which i would prefer to have, living in australia and all, but i can completely see why they chose to leave it out.
here you can see the dark patch on my cheek - this is probably the lightest coverage skin base can provide.
skin base also works as a concealer and is said to need no primer. illamasqua does, however, make two very good primers for either a satin or matte finish if you prefer to use one. skin base retails in australia for $65 and can either be bought from certain myer stores or at their website.
(face: clinique stick concealer, illamasqua skin base in no. 9, m.a.c. mineralise skinfinish natural in medium plus. eyes: lancome eyeshadows from a palette, red gel eyeliner from ebay, milani stick eyeliner, clinique high impact mascara, fyrinnae half-elf hottie eyeshadow as highlight. cheeks: estee lauder blush, lancome brown eyeshadow on a blemish to make it into a beauty mark. lips: lip balm & illamasqua's brink)
